Dino Rossi has gone missing, replaced by a bad copy.
The original Dino Rossi set out for the governor’s mansion brimming with confidence, greeting folks with bright eyes, a wide smile and a solid handshake – not one of those slithering palms that feels like a dead fish.
Perfectly tailored in an underdog suit, this salesman waged a $6.1 million marketing campaign of amazing clarity that won the hearts, minds and votes of 1,373,232 people in the state.
His message of change mesmerized his flock. Though few of them knew precisely what he would do, they all seemed to know what he meant. And he made them feel good knowing it.
The original Dino Rossi sealed the deal at each stop with a humble request for help and a believable promise to be a governor for the whole state. He made it never seem to be about him, even when it was all about him winning.
That is not the Dino Rossi I saw on Wednesday.
That man at the podium in an emptied Bellevue office was an impostor. He had no sparkle in his eye, and no smile. He shook no hands. He spoke with resolve dipped in rancor, a hollow insistence that he is fighting on for the good of Washington – not for himself.
That Dino Rossi looked glum and sounded desperate.
I know there’s reason to be both..
Rossi fell 129 votes shy of being that governor of the whole state. He’s feeling ripped off, cheated by insider trading in King County. He needs to uncover some voter fraud to prove his point.
For days now, Rossi, his lawyers and his conspiracy theorist friends have been digging around the carcass of the election in search of a smoking ballot, with none found to date.
Rossi is threatening to contest the results. He’s crusading for a revote to heal those of declining faith in elections and to decide once and for all the People’s Choice for chief executive.
It’s a tough sale to a public exhausted by the ordeal. The original Dino Rossi could pull it off with his rhetorical skills and sense of statesmanship. He successfully marketed a long shot – himself.
The impostor, though, I’m not so sure, especially if, as it appears, he’s pursuing it without influential friends.
Like former Secretary of State Ralph Munro. He started the talk about voting one more time to settle the score and cleanse the partisan poisons from our system. He’s a 100-proof Rossi backer yet he wasn’t there helping Rossi pitch the idea.
Former Gov. Dan Evans and former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, two more high fidelity Republicans who’ve stood at Rossi’s side in this epic, were noticeably absent too. They’re not abandoning their man but must be wary of the path this guy is traveling.
That left the look-alike Rossi alone to carry on. He answered five questions from reporters then turned his head down and fled through a side door. His was a going-out-of-business sales pitch.
While this chapter gets written, I’m off to see if anyone’s filed a missing person report.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield’s column on politics runs every Sunday. He can be heard at 7 a.m. Monday on the “Morning Show” on KSER (90.7 FM). He can be reached at 1-360 352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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